Missouri's unemployment rate remained just below 9 percent in May.
Figures from the state Department of Economic Development indicate that Missouri's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.9 percent last month - the same level as in April.
The total number of nonfarm jobs, however, fell by 1,500 in May.
The department says the figures were based on conditions in the second week of May, when flooding was occurring in southeast Missouri but before a tornado hit Joplin.
Missouri's May unemployment rate was a little better than the nation's 9.1 percent rate.